Union Official, Weicker Aide Dispute Details Of Labor Pact

February 14, 1992|By LARRY WILLIAMS; Capitol Bureau Chief

The president of the state health-care workers' union has refused to sign a concession agreement with the Weicker administration, saying the terms differ from the ones he accepted at the bargaining table.

Jerome P. Brown of the New England Health Care Employees Union, District 1199, also has accused the state of an unfair labor practice in a complaint filed Tuesday with the state labor relations board.

The agreement, Murray said, calls for the 8,500 members of Brown's union to take pay cuts of 3 percent for 28 weeks starting Dec. 13, 1991. She said Brown insists he agreed to a 26-week period for the pay cut.

Brown could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The agreement with Brown's union, which has two bargaining units representing professional and nonprofessional employees, is part of a package of labor concessions worth $354 million in savings in the current fiscal year.

The other 11 unions signed their agreements, which provided for various combinations of wage cuts, raise deferrals and furloughs to produce a savings for the state.

Murray said that the 28-week pay reduction was also a part of several other unions' agreements and that Brown was the only union leader to claim he agreed to something else.

She made public a copy of what she said was the administration proposal discussed at the bargaining table in December and a copy of the contract provision that Brown objected to. The language is nearly identical.

John W. Kingston, agent for the labor relations board, said an informal conference on the complaint probably would be scheduled late next month